UN Should Condemn US Violation Of Iran's Airspace: Khazaei

New York, Dec 10, IRNA -- Iran's envoy to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaei said on Friday that the UN should condemn the violation of the country's airspace. Khazaei made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in New York on Friday. Referring to his recent letter for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UN General Assembly and UN Security Council, the official added that Tehran expects that UN take an impartial stance and condemn the violation of any countries' airspace by any other country. "Iran stresses that defending its territory is its legal right and the aggressive county would be responsible for the consequences of repetition of such actions," the envoy stated. Khazaei criticized the double-standard behavior of some UN members and UN Security Council, adding that UN Security Council is silent vis-a-vis the crimes of the Zionist regime, but has approved baseless resolutions against Tehran. "UN Security Council stance towards Yemen incidents is an example of UN Security Council discriminatory behavior," the official underlined. He noted that Iran's success in discovering and controlling the US spy drone can force the hostile countries to review their aggressive plans aiming Tehran. "US officials are astonished by Iran's ability in controlling and taking the US spy drone under their control," Khazaei continued. Iran, in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UN General Assembly and UN Security Council, called for condemning the violation of Iran's airspace by the US spy drone while strongly criticizing the US government. Kazaei in his letter to the heads of UN’s main bodies wrote that in continuation of US hostile moves against Tehran, a US RQ170 drone violated the country's airspace by entering 250 kilometers into the northern Tabas region that faced timely and strong reaction of the Iranian armed forces. "My government emphasizes the obvious and provocative violation of the US government is a hostile move and in evident contradiction to international law, particularly the basic principles of the UN charter,” Khazaei wrote in his letter while mentioning Iran’s previous letters to US government in this regard. Iran displayed an aircraft Thursday that it said was a US spy drone downed last week by an 'electronic ambush,' a feat that prompted boasts of Iranian technological prowess in the face of increased hostility from the West. Iranian state television used its main newscast to unveil the drone, identified as a stealth RQ-170 Sentinel made by Lockheed Martin. The drone was shown in a video at an undisclosed location where two men in military fatigues could be seen walking around it. The belly of the plane was covered with banners saying, 'We'll trample America underfoot' and 'the US cannot do a damn thing.' Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of Islamic Revolution's Guard Corps (IRGC), told state television that the drone was downed by a joint operation of IRGC and the Islamic Republic of Iran's Army. "After entering the country's eastern space, the plane was caught in an electronic ambush by the armed forces, and it was downed on the land with the minimum damage," Hajizadeh said. He said the drone is equipped with advanced systems for gathering electronic, visual and telecommunication information and possesses various radar systems. US officials said that while they have enough information to confirm that Iran does have the wreckage, they are not sure what the Iranians will be able to gain technologically from what they found. According to these officials, the US built up the air base in Shindand, Afghanistan, with an eye to keeping a long-term presence there to launch surveillance missions and even special spy missions into Iran if deemed necessary in the future. The RQ-170 is one of the more sensitive surveillance platforms in the CIA's fleet. RQ-170 drones have been used in stealth missions into the airspace of other nations, including Pakistan, where surveillance was conducted for months on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan before he was killed in a US raid in May./end